Listen to Lucky

I was reading "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L friedman and this would be one of the most cherished books of my personal collection. In one the chapters, when he discusses the case of Ellsworth vs Yahoo, he brings out a beautiful point. Excerpts from the Book: On November 13, 2004, Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, twenty, was killed by a roadside bomb during a foot patrol in Iraq. On December 21, 2004, the Associated Press reported that his family was demanding that Yahoo! give them the password for their deceased son's e-mail account so they could have access to all his e-mail, including notes to and from others. "I want to be able to remember him in his words. I know he thought he was doing what he needed to do. I want to have that for the future," John Ellsworth, Justin's father, told the AP. "It's the last thing I have of my son." We are moving into a world where more and more communication is in the form of bits traveling through cyberspace ...

I also have few projects of my own and "Param" is one for which i have dedicated atleast last 4-5 months. 29th of May 2007 would be marked in my calendar as one of the darkest days of My life as I ended up with yet another failed attempt to scale new peaks. I was happy about "TOD" (Technical Order Decomposition) went into production and getting live the previous week with few hiccups in the morning. The project was of massive scale which required 1800 man days and the best part of mine was to step into the Matt's (principal designer) shoes and execute it under critical conditions in the absence of Matt K. Though it would take few days for me to recover from Param, Param would be still under consideration and will be executed one day sooner/later. ~Lakshman

I was just going through the Hindu this morning and came to know that one of the XII std girl has committed suicide because of the fear of low marks scored in the recent examinations. Ever since the board exams came in mid eighties (if my memory is right, it was introduced by MGR govt in 1984), there is unusual tension which percolates to even the 80 year old granny in a family where one of the kids apperaing for the board exams (to scare somebody call it "public exams"). Are we producing Ramanujams and Ramans by these exams?. The max thing which would be brought by these exams are the corner seats allocated in the AIR 13 (thats my favourite room in REC trichy) for the so called elite students who keep mugging / reading things by heart (dabba adiakrathu / mug adikarathu in layman's parlance). I used to make fun about people (who keep mugging things as sukkumi-laguthi-ippli instead of sukku-milagu-thippili). I always like to provide instances to substantiate my reasoning. ...

It would be strange if you read and interpret the title, this is one which i have been nurturing in my neuro-barn for a while. I still remember my discussions on the lawns of bishop heber, with my friend Subramanian (Sup) and my lineage to work with few NGOs and do something worthful in my life. But when I moved out of my academic pursuits, i had my own compulsions of making money and i am still in the process of making it as many people around me. But there is a compulsion within myself for which i don't have enough answers at this point of time to address them. I have been in my shell (which resembles the cave in cast away island) and i keep contemplating for months (nalla velai...i didn't go to Tiruvannamalai as shri ramana...though even i had questions of who am i. i believe only sadhus and jackie chan might know an answer for this question...ha ha) There are always many things which i have received and i feel that i have been fortunate among the lot who accepts the life wh...

I just told in one of my earlier posts that i had a passion to play Black Piano and I was cribbing that i couldn't buy one. But i was fortuntate to be invited by my friend Manju to her college and we had a great time playing piano and debating about MS Swaminathan and his vision. Thanks to Manju for providing me an opportunity to play a Yamaha Piano (which was available on Imperial college, London). Another one....I was playing Raja's Illam Kaathu Veesuthu and singing the same... Her college was situated in a beautiful serene environment. We had lengthy discussions about consumerism and its environment impacts and had a nice lunch (she got me couscous ..i don't know what it is but it was cute... (It is a moroccon dish made from semolina base - thanks to Subramanian for giving me the etymological reasons behind the dish. Sup (Thats how we call him, always has an answer to all these unknown fundas in life. I can write a separate blog with my interactions with Srirangam Gang....

“The aim and final reason of all music should be nothing but the glory of God and the refreshment of spirit.” - i often wondered this quote by JS Bach - whether he referred to our carnatic music. I was listening to Dwijavanti (the raaga) in different forms and i was fascinated finally to conclude by a famous lyric "Kanneer Thuligal Thaan Kalaigalin Vegumanam". Though Rishivani's janyaraaga - "Kiravani" is my all-time favourite among the raagas, Dwijavanti is slowly catching up with kadhanakudhuhalam and kaapinarayani. The best part of this raaga,it sets up the melancholy mood for the song. For few friends of mine, who cannot unerstand what a raaga is ? - It is basically a scale of notes but it has to to be sung with the proper bhava /moods to induce the listener. I still remember, i was hooked for the first time when i listened to "Chetasri Balakrishnam" composed on Dwijavanti by our well know Madurai Mani Mama. Incidentally Dwijavanti is very much lik...